Ninja's Creed: Awakening
by jaceninjaboy
Summary: Lloyd Garmadon is a normal teenager with a perfectly ordinary life...or so it seems. When four other teens kidnap him and bring him to an uncle he never knew he had, Lloyd is revealed to be the descendant of an Assassin, born into the Brotherhood from his mother's side of the family. With a new evil surfacing in Ninjago, it will take all of Lloyd's training to save the world.
1. Prologue

The two Templar guards never expected the attack. Everything had been planned to the last second, from beginning to end, and little did the guards know that they had a very short role in this plan... and were never going to be used again.

Both of them were guarding a high-tech, highly sophisticated office building located in the now-quiet business district of Ninjago City. The building's full name was the Ninjago Biochemical & Nuclear Research Institute, but everyone in the city simply called it RIBNN, after switching around some letters.

None of this mattered to them, though. They were only holding this job for the huge payout it would amount to. Anything else could go die, and anyone who stood in the way of that _would_ die.

One of the Templars opened his mouth to say something to his partner. He never got to speak. His eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed right there. His partner immediately bent down to inspect him for signs of what had happened, and what he saw made his blood freeze.

A silver throwing knife was embedded in the first guard's neck.

Hearing a noise behind him, he slowly turned to see a young man wearing ashen-colored robes, a blood-red sash, and various weapon pouches standing behind him, whose face was partly concealed by the hood of the robes.

It was the last thing he ever saw.

Before the surviving guard could yell to his colleagues inside the building, the hooded figure flicked his wrist, revealing some sort of hidden blade, and shoved the weapon through his skull. The victim didn't even scream. He simply collapsed beside his predeceased partner.

The man bent over the first Templar's corpse to retrieve the throwing knife. No doubt his friends were done with the remainder of the guards inside. He removed his hood and revealed himself to be…a teenager. The boy grinned. He knew their mentors would be pleased with the success of the mission. The boy pressed a button on the hidden communicator in his earlobe. "Kai?... _Evet_ , I'm done with the ones outside…Si. We will regroup at _il_ _nascondiglio_ _dell'Assassino_ _…_ OK. Just make sure to tell me if those _dannati_ Templars ambush you… _Arrivederci, mio fratello._ " With that, the teenager replaced his hood and , just as quickly as he'd appeared, disappeared into the shadows of the night.


	2. Chapter One: Let Them See The Real You

Lloyd Garmadon's seventeenth birthday was the day his life changed forever.

The day had started out ordinarily enough. As soon as his eyes opened, they widened when he realized what day it was. Then, sitting up in bed, her shrugged nonchalantly and stretched. He'd stopped looking forward to birthdays when he'd turned thirteen.

It wasn't that Lloyd was like one of those people who were overly conscious of their age, or that he never wanted to lose his youth because he was a hippie or something. Nah, that was what Grandpa Wei was for.

The reason he didn't care much for birthdays now was because they were just more opportunities for people to give him and his mom more crap about the one thing he hated the most about his life: his dad, Lord Garmadon, was the leader of the Order of the Knights Templar.

The Templars, as everyone called them, had shown up twenty years ago, right in the middle of the construction of Abstergo Industries in the business district of Ninjago City. They had begun to control everything and rise to power in the city, and now there was roughly sixty percent of the city left for the citizens to use. Lloyd had no clue what the hell Abstergo did, but he was guessing it had something to do with the sudden arrival of the Templars. Plus, he'd been hearing rumors that some pretty fricked up things were going on inside those labs.

He shrugged, letting out a sigh. Better not to think about the reason for his constant anguish. His mom Misako, or "Koko", as everyone called her, told him to never be ashamed of the person he was, and to always think of the positive side of life. Lloyd's problem was that he wasn't sure that there was one anymore. Stretching again, he climbed out of bed and went to get ready for the day ahead of him.

Looking into the mirror on the dresser on the back wall of his room he got a good, long look at himself. His messy blond hair, piercing green eyes, and evenly tanned complexion made up the Lloyd Garmadon everyone knew (and unfortunately, despised). Sighing again, he got dressed and headed towards the kitchen for breakfast.

When he passed the living room to get to the kitchen, he found Koko curled up on the couch, reading one of those cheap paperback romance novels you could find in a 99 cent store. In fact, she was so absorbed in the novel, she hadn't heard her son enter the room.

Lloyd raised an eyebrow. "Never thought of you as the ' _Gone with the Wind_ 'type, Mom", he chuckled. Koko looked up and smiled at him. "Never thought of _you_ as the 'morning person' type", she replied. Lloyd rolled his anyway. "Happy birthday, honey!" Koko told him, leading him to the kitchen. "What would you like for breakfast?"

"Corn flakes are fine, Mom", Lloyd answered, sitting down at the bar. A few seconds later, Koko set the bowl of corn flakes in front of him. "So, Mom, I was wondering if…maybe, just for my birthday, I could...you know…skip school?"

"Skip school? Honey, why would you wanna do _that_? These are the best years of your life!" "Yeah, now that it's almost over", Lloyd sighed, shoveling a spoonful of cereal into his mouth. High school had been nothing short of four-year torture for him, and all because of a father he hardly knew.

Koko lifted her son's eyes so they met hers. "All you need to do is let them see the real you", she said softly. Then, before he could say anything else, she went over to the sink and started to scrub away at a pile of dishes next to the sink.

Lloyd's day at school was the worst he ever had.

Not only did he get the usual taunting from everybody, but the school's most popular cheerleader, Chen, and his cheer squad gave him a crappy, unaccepted birthday song about how he was the spitting image of his dad. In other words, evil, deadly, and always plotting something.

But the worst part came during sixth period. "Okay, class, please turn in your tests", Lloyd's biology teacher, Ms. Carolla, said to her class. Lloyd had always liked her best because she was nicer to him than all the other teachers. Lloyd filled in the last answer on his test, then stood up to go to Ms. Carolla's desk to turn in his test.

And that's when it happened.

A loud boom came from outside . Everyone froze. Did something explode? Was there a surprise fireworks display?

And then the building actually exploded in a burst of orange flame.

Meanwhile, somewhere Lloyd had no idea existed, the four teenagers behind the plant attack stared at a video monitor, whose grainy footage showed a blond haired, green-eyed teenager sitting in a school desk, staring attentively ahead. " _That's_ who we're supposed to bring back?" one of the boys asked, a bewildered expression etched on his face.

The one who had killed the plant guards sighed. "Yes, _manichino_ ", he said, as if talking to a toddler. "That's the boy that _Il Mentore_ —" The sudden bright orange glow and burst of static from the monitor grabbed their attention once more. "Aw, damn!" the second boy yelled. "Alright, team, looks like we're getting him on the way back! Until then, let's go kick some _culo_!"

And with this, the four grabbed their weapons and left their lair.


	3. Chapter Two: The Attack

"Ugh..." Lloyd opened his eyes, but everything he saw was a blur. Am I dead? he wondered, hoping for a sign that indicated he wasn't. Slowly, he attempted to raise his head from the heated tile flooring—or at least what was left of it—and looked around. The explosion had demolished the majority of the school, leaving most of it behind as rubble that reached his knees or nothing. There were pieces of what he hoped was a model skeleton strewn about the wreckage, along with shards of broken, melted glass and charred wood, both of which were stuck in the wall, dangerously close to Lloyd's head. When he tried to think of a possible explanation for the destruction, there was only one name that came to Lloyd's mind. His dad was behind this.

So that was why he suddenly felt sick to his stomach.

Lloyd knew he should probably try to escape the area, before something blew him to smithereens or crushed him, but he knew he was gonna have to stand to do that. tried to stand up, grasping an especially huge piece of debris to steady himself. "AAH!" he cried, nearly breaking his neck on another piece of rock in front of him. He sighed. This was going to take a few minutes.

Five tries and thirty seconds later, he could stand with no complications and the ringing in his ears had stopped, which Lloyd was grateful for. But the satisfaction didn't last long. As soon as he looked up, his eyes widened with terror.

He was in the center of a full-on Garmadon attack. The sky above him was a mess of explosions, his father's Manta Ray attack bombers, and missiles, while the ground level was even worse. There were warriors in Garmadon's Shark Army everywhere, terrorizing citizens, knocking off military and police personnel, or holding hostages. Dammit! Lloyd thought, looking up at everything going on around him. This city can't even be attack-free on the leader's son's birthday, can it?

And that was when he heard it. A sound so small, he was only able to detect because his senses were heightened by all the commotion around him: a tiny piece of rock falling—and hitting what would've been the floor—behind him. He whipped around, and the source of the noise made him freeze in terror. There, standing atop a pile of rocks that gave the appearance of a mountain, was a Templar solider, holding a sword that gleamed in the pre-afternoon sunlight.

Lloyd slowly backed away from the soldier, who had started to advance on him with a murderous, wicked smile on his face. "Be a smart boy and don't make this hard on yourself", he cackled, waving the blade around menacingly. "It'll be over with just a swipe..."

Terrified at these words, Lloyd did the only intelligible thing he could think of; he ran.

He sprinted away, praying that he'd surprised the solider and had gotten a headstart, but five seconds later, the sound of rapid footsteps behind him dashed this hope. Two minutes, fourteen sharp turns, and one car roll later, Lloyd realized he couldn't go on much longer. His lungs burned like flaming hell, causing his eyes darted everywhere, hoping to find a place to hide, or somehow lose his follower, when he finally found one: an alleyway, just up ahead, came into view. Given a new surge of adrenaline by this sight, he kept running straight for another twenty feet. Then, hopefully unexpected to his follower, he jerked right into the alley.

Unfortunately for him, the Templar solider had been expecting this, and threw a nearby glass whiskey bottle at Lloyd's feet. The impact sent the glass flying in every direction, and—as luck would have it—one piece found its way into his heel. Lloyd cried out, falling to the ground. As the solider slowly advanced on him, he desperately scrambled backwards, finally unable to go back any more. The solider chuckled evilly. "Nighty-night, brat", he whispered, raising his sword to deal the final blow. Lloyd raised his head, praying his death would be quick and painless.

But oblivion never came. Something had jerked soldier back and was now fighting him! Thank you, God! Lloyd thought, watching the scene before him unfold.

The soldier slashed at his opponent, who countered with a block and abruptly lowered his arm forcefully. The soldier screamed, dropping his blade and stepping backward, and now the blonde teen could see someone in black-lined white robes, with some kind of concealed blade on his—or her—arm.

The soldier refused to give up, kicking out at the assailant's head. The hooded figure caught his leg easily, and, in one swift movement, snapped the bone beneath the flesh. The solider almost shattered the glass with his screams. Then, in one fluid motion, the hooded figure threw the solider's leg away, causing him to spin, while the assailant himself turned in a half-circle, popped out his hidden blade, and finally plunged the weapon into the solider's neck.

The Templar's features were forever frozen in a mask of horror, covered in blood and with its throat torn open. The killer shoved his prey's corpse away, then trained his eyes on Lloyd. Lloyd, obviously, was shocked and speechless. He was so petrified, he didn't even feel his heel burnig anymore. All he could do was take one last look at his savior, then promptly black out.


End file.
